FIG. 1 is an illustration of a conventional computer-telephony integration (CTI) system using customer premises equipment (CPE). Note that FIG. 1 depicts computer links in solid lines, and telephony links in broken lines.
The system of FIG. 1 receives an incoming call 60 from telephone network 101 at switch 90. The switch passes information about the call to a CTI server 80. The information passed may include, for example, the calling line identification (CLID), sometimes known as automatic number identification (ANI), and/or the dialed number identification.
Switch 90 may also be provided with an interactive voice response (IVR) unit 95, which may be used to obtain additional information from the caller, for example an account number or such like. This additional information may also be passed to CTI server 80. The IVR unit may be further used to play various messages to the caller as part of the initial call handling, for example to allow a caller to specify the type of desired action—e.g. make a new booking, amend a previous booking, or some other query. Caller input in response to such messages can then be used subsequently in determining how to handle the call.
The switch 90 routes the incoming call 60 over an internal telephone network (not specifically shown in FIG. 1) to a telephone 121 belonging to an agent 120. For example, the switch may route a particular incoming call 60 to agent 120B having telephone 121B. The CTI server 80 may instruct the switch 90 which particular agent to forward the incoming call to. In other implementations, the switch 90 may make this decision through some other mechanism, such as agent availability (and notify the CTI server 80 accordingly).
In addition to telephone 121, each agent 120 is also provided with a workstation 122. The CTI server 80 has access to a customer relationship management (CRM) database 70. The CTI server 80 can use information about a particular call provided by switch 90 to look up information relating to the caller in the CRM database 70. For example, this information may represent the name and address of a party associated with a particular calling line identification, as well as any information about previous orders this person may have made, etc.
The CTI server 80 now provides this information to the workstation 122 associated with the agent 120 who receives the call from switch 90. For example if the incoming call 60 is to be routed to telephone 121 B of agent 120B, then the CTI server accesses information about the caller from CRM database 70 and forwards this information to corresponding workstation 122B. Another possibility is that the CTI server provides the corresponding workstation with a link that allows the workstation itself to retrieve relevant information from CRM database 70. This information received by workstation 122 can be used to assist the agent in handling the call, such as for performing a transaction with the caller.
(In the present context, the term transaction is used broadly to indicate an interaction between the caller and the agent, with or without payment being involved, such as providing information or selling a product to a caller, initiating, modifying or terminating a service provided to the caller, etc. A transaction will generally be entered into and/or facilitated by workstation 122).
Call centres having CTI such as shown in FIG. 1 have been around for many years. The configuration shown in FIG. 1 is often internal to a particular organisation. However, it is also common for organisations to outsource CTI and/or call centre operations to some third party, potentially the operator of telephone network 101. In some cases, the party running an outsourced call centre may operate their own CPE environment, such as shown in FIG. 1.
Another configuration is based on service provider equipment (SPE), which is located (in a logical sense) inside the telephone network itself, rather than at a particular customer location. One advantage of the SPE approach is that an SPE installation is very flexible in the way it can serve multiple customers. However, it can be difficult to provide fully effective CTI in an SPE environment, given the need to integrate operations in the network with those at the customer location.